Chapter 1101: Arrival

As departure time drew near, he couldn't fall asleep no matter what that night, unsure whether it was from eating too much after that big bowl of chicken soup, or because something kept weighing on his mind.

He went to bed early and lay there until the middle of the night, even firing off one quick round in between, tiring himself out, thinking he'd fall asleep soon, but his mind remained wide awake.

He only got up when he heard the old lady opening the door outside.

In the dead of night, even the tiniest sounds get amplified infinitely, especially since he'd been wound up tight the whole time, waiting for the hour to come.

Lin Lin Xiuqing had actually been sleeping lightly too; the sound of him tossing beside her kept startling her awake every so often. When she heard this time it wasn't tossing but him getting out of bed, she sat up as well.

"Time to go?"

"Yeah, it's time."

Hearing the old lady come out and open the door, he knew it was time. The old lady getting up now meant she was either reheating chicken soup for him to take on the road, or boiling eggs for him—figured she'd come knock on the door in a bit.

Lin Lin Xiuqing also rustled herself up to get dressed.

Ye Yaodong didn't stop her. After all, this was a long trip—last year he'd been gone two or three months. If she wanted to see him off, he'd let her see him off.

Only neither of them spoke, as if a thousand words lay unspoken between them, while the old lady kept on chattering away.

Only when they stepped out the door did Lin Lin Xiuqing remind him to be careful and come back soon.

It was the dead of night, so Ye Yaodong told them to go back inside, and she didn't insist on walking him all the way to the dock.

If she went, the old lady would surely tag along too, and their slow footsteps would only delay their departure.

It wasn't his first long trip either, so this time she didn't cling or fuss.

A-Guang's new boat was just an ordinary trawler, with only one tiny cabin on board. Luckily it was new and empty inside, so it could hold quite a bit; whatever didn't fit got piled on the deck.

There was nowhere for anyone to rest, so they just sat on the ground or perched on top of the supplies.

Apart from Ye Yaoguo, everyone else had gone last year—even the deckhands aboard the Dongsheng had been hired on as crew last time.

So once aboard, everyone sat around chatting comfortably, answering whatever was asked. Once they'd chatted enough, they each settled in a corner to rest their eyes and sleep.

It was the dead of night, pitch black all around—only fit for sleeping.

Once they set off, rocking on the sea with the sea breeze blowing, Ye Yaodong could at least close his eyes and doze a bit, though the roar of the engines in his ears kept him in a half-awake state.

They only opened their eyes one by one when it was fully light, gnawing on the dry rations they'd brought.

Ye Yaodong's gear—fishing tackle and all—was all on the Dongsheng. He'd only decided at the last minute yesterday afternoon to take A-Guang's boat and set out early, so he hadn't brought anything.

A-Guang's new boat didn't have anything on it either; all the salvaging tools had long been prepared and were waiting on the Harvest.

So there was nothing for him to do. After filling his belly, he could only keep half-lying, half-leaning against a sack of rice, feet up, staring at the blue sky and white clouds out of sheer boredom.

He only shifted his spot when A-Guang called him to take over the watch.

The others had wised up, though—someone had brought a deck of playing cards, and after eating they started a game, using the cards to play Pai Gow. Everyone could join in.

A-Guang spotted them starting up and hurriedly called Ye Yaodong to take over, seeing him lounging lazily with no intention of playing.

Ye Yaodong took over and teased him, "With that luck of yours, you sure you're not just going there to give away money?"

"A little gambling is for fun—I'm just watching, tossing in a couple of bets casually. The point is to take part! Who's as unsociable as you? Everyone's playing so enthusiastically and there you are spacing out. Besides, don't underestimate my luck—it's been accumulating for decades now, about to explode big time. I'm definitely winning money."

"Just 1 mao, 2 mao bets, and you're definitely winning? Even if they gave it all to you, how much could you win—a few kuai? Just listen to their shouting and that'll tell you."

"Big Boss Ye can't be bothered with 1 mao and 2 mao now?"

"Pfft~"

A-Guang's voice trailed off as he talked, already squeezing into the crowd. Ye Yaodong said nothing, took over the work, and caught up with the Harvest ahead.

With the Harvest leading the way up front, he didn't need to think—just follow along.

In his ears, apart from the engine noise, the waves, and the wind, the loudest sound was the gambling dogs behind him.

Ye Yaodong never called A-Guang back to take over after taking the watch himself. He wasn't interested anyway, so he let A-Guang have his fun.

By noon, as they neared the coast of Zhejiang province, they could occasionally spot one or two drifting jellyfish now and then, but not in great numbers.

The two boats, one ahead and one behind, hadn't stopped at all. Old Pei's route had been traveled several times, so they knew the way and took few detours, pushing at full speed the whole way. The weather was good today too, so naturally they arrived a bit faster than expected.

The gambling dogs behind them had eaten one meal in the morning and then stayed immersed in gambling the whole time, not even stopping at noon to eat. Seven or eight of them gambled from morning until they docked in the afternoon, finally packing up with great reluctance.

Their full attention had been on the cards—they hadn't looked at the sea at all. Good thing no one was hauling them off to be sold.

Along the coast there were plenty of little wooden boats out salvaging, some with shadows of jellyfish on board. The sun had only just begun to slant west, not yet time to knock off and head home for dinner, so all the fishermen were still hard at work on the sea.

Ye Yaodong looked at the familiar dock and his heart settled back into his stomach. Then he turned toward the gambling dogs shouting at the top of their lungs and tried to scare them: "Gambling raid! Gambling raid…"

"We're here?"

"Already?"

"Then let's wrap up—one last hand…"

A-Guang wrapped up too. Ye Yaodong watched him walk over with his hands stuffed in his pockets and knew without asking he'd lost money—if he'd won, he'd surely be waving bills around and proudly counting them out for him to see.

"How much did you lose?"

"All because of your damn crow mouth—lost 3 kuai."

"Told you. Gambling's not for you."

"A little gambling is for fun, as long as you're happy. At least it killed the time on the boat for the day."

"Who won?"

"Chen Shi—don't let his quiet look fool you, his gambling luck's pretty good. I followed his bets later on and lost a bit less. He probably won eight or nine kuai. Some of the others were already in debt before we even set off."

Ye Yaodong burst out laughing—they'd only just set out, coming out to earn money, and before they'd earned a cent, they were already in debt.

"These guys' wages'll have to be paid out when we get home, same as last year. Otherwise they'd come out on a trip, not earn a cent, and go home owing a pile of debts."

A-Guang laughed too. "That's right, but if they need to spend money once in a while, they can get an advance."

"Alright, we're docking soon. In a bit, the two of us will go find a place to stay first. The rest of you wait on the boat."

"Let's see if the houses we rented last year are still available—they're close to the Gongan Bureau, so if anything comes up, it's convenient."

"The whole town's this tiny, where isn't close to the Gongan Bureau?"

If he had a little electric scooter, he could circle the whole place in under 10 minutes. Everywhere across the country was in a state of waiting to be rebuilt—even the big cities were the same.

"Hopefully they'll still be willing to rent it out, that would save a lot of trouble."

"Mm, we'll go ask once we dock."

When they arrived, it was only around 3 in the afternoon — the result of not taking any detours. The others were happy to see the dock right ahead, and told Ye Yaodong to remember to call home later to report that they were safe; they would stay on the boat to watch the cargo and luggage.

Ye Yaodong moored alongside the Harvest, and since it wasn't dusk yet and few fishing boats had returned, the dock was still empty — very convenient for berthing.

Although the fishing boats were all out on the sea working, there was no shortage of people on shore. For a small town built by the water, the dock counted as a bustling district, and plenty of people bustled about for their livelihoods. Everyone was poor these days — otherwise no one would willingly walk back and forth under the blazing July sun.

Just looking at this stretch of the dock's coastline, Ye Yaodong could imagine that if a seawall were built here someday, plenty of food stalls would surely line the shore.

On a summer night, sitting by the coast eating seafood, drinking beer, and feeling the sea breeze — that was the height of comfort.

Aguang chatted with his father for a bit, gave him some instructions, then followed Ye Yaodong to find a place to stay first.

Both boats were outsiders, and one was a big vessel like the Harvest — their fishing boats had drawn plenty of attention from locals on shore the moment they docked.

When the two of them disembarked, Ye Yaodong could hear the locals gossiping, saying they must be the group that came over to scoop up jellyfish last year — the Harvest had been quite conspicuous back then too.

By the time they had walked around and rented several rooms, the sun had already set, and the whole little town had spread the word that they'd come again this year to scoop up jellyfish. Luckily, they were all wearing hats.

After spending the whole day under the sun, a bald head couldn't take it even more. They were also worried that exposing all their bald heads would scare the townspeople — for now, better to keep them hidden.

After the two of them rented the houses, they went down to the shore and overheard the locals' gossip.

Their language was already fairly close to begin with. They'd chosen this little town last year because the locals spoke a mix of Minnan and other dialects, so they could understand about half of it — they could get by without speaking Mandarin.

Neither of them paid any mind to the locals' gossip — it was inevitable anyway, so what did it matter.

After they got back on the boat, they had the crew first take their own luggage to the rental house and drop it off, then come back in shifts to move the supplies from the boat. Anything needed for the sea voyage was locked in the cabin.

While they were moving things in an orderly fashion, Ye Yaodong also asked Aguang and his father to keep an eye on things — he wanted to take advantage of the remaining daylight to call the village and report they were safe.

Many people in the village were waiting for his safety call. Hearing that they were already settled put everyone at ease. After Ye Fu took the call, he went to notify the others, and they set out that night as usual.

When they rented the houses in the afternoon, they deliberately chose ones next to each other. Since they'd rented here last year, it was easy to rent again this year. Neighbors in the area, seeing money to be made, were willing to vacate one or two rooms, or take the elderly elsewhere — after all, it was only a three-month rental.

After Ye Yaodong rented the houses, he also hired two women as landladies-cooks at 30 yuan a month to prepare three meals a day. The women were overjoyed — such a good thing falling into their laps — and nodded eagerly.

Factory workers only earned forty or fifty yuan a month for a full day's labor, while these women just had to cook three home-cooked meals — a breeze for them. Money handed to them, not taking it would be foolish.

After they finished moving their luggage and supplies and settled in, they finally got a hot meal. Each and every one of them had skipped lunch for the sake of gambling, and now they wolfed down their dinner.

That evening, both boats' crews ate together — they'd hired the cooks anyway, no point not making use of them, and they'd hitched a free ride on Aguang's boat today.

"Are you going to the jellyfish factory tomorrow?"

Aguang nodded with food in his mouth. "Tomorrow we'll buy some cigarettes and liquor first to pay a visit to last year's police officer. Best to go around mealtime — that's when he's off work and free. Then tomorrow afternoon we'll swing by the jellyfish factory to take a look. At dusk I saw one or two tractors at the dock hauling jellyfish, though not in large quantities."

"Yeah, not much. With so many boats, how much can one tractor carry? That's why the factories usually haven't started up yet. Wait a few days and the quantities will start growing day by day."

"Your little boat arriving is just right. If there aren't many jellyfish on the surface, you can also send the workers out in the small wooden boats to try their luck — catch whatever they can. At least you're not supporting idle hands. And no fuel costs either, unlike our boat — the moment it moves, what we earn isn't enough to cover the loss."

"I'll wait until my father arrives tomorrow to decide. Even if we go in the water, it'll be the day after tomorrow."

"Mm."

Ye Yaodong rented two rental houses. One was an entire house vacated for him, with three rooms inside. The other was a separate rental of two rooms — five rooms in total.

He planned to share one room with his father — after all, the two of them were the bosses, no need to squeeze in with the others.

The remaining 28 people would squeeze into 4 rooms. They'd brought their own floor bedding long ago — all they needed was a roll of matting and a sheet. They were experienced at this. But since the main group hadn't arrived yet tonight, everyone could spread out a bit.

Aguang's side had 10 people, and he also rented two rooms, also together.

They also helped their own families and friends find and reserve places in advance. As for other villagers, they didn't bother — each boat's crew wasn't that large, so arranging things on the fly wasn't a hassle.

It was also because they were the ones who found the houses, so they got first pick. Less scattered, they took the clustered ones first.

No work the next day either. After the meal, everyone was in a leisurely mood and went out for a stroll — Ye Yaodong was no exception, though he left someone behind to watch the houses.

But there wasn't much to see in the little town at night — few people on the roads, and hardly any streetlights.

The townspeople mostly sat at their own doorsteps to cool off. Those with TVs at home would carry them outside the door for the Da Da Jiefang neighbors to watch together — and to satisfy their own vanity.

Their people, seeing a crowd gathered watching TV, went over and joined them — bold as brass — but didn't watch long before heading back to sleep.

After all, they were setting out at 2 a. m., spending the whole day gambling on the sea, and hadn't closed their eyes to rest at all.

Ye Yaodong only took one lap around, saw that everywhere was pitch black with nothing worth wandering for, and being tired, came back early to sleep. His father hadn't arrived yet, so he had a room all to himself.

But by dusk the next day, Ye Fu had also arrived safely with the main group.

He and Aguang only went the next day to pay a visit to Police Officer Yang Guoan, and took a turn around the jellyfish factory, then timed themselves to wait at the dock.

The main group's progress was slower — too many fishing boats slowing them down. Yesterday they arrived at 3, but today the main group didn't arrive until 4.

The moment the main group's vessels docked, they stunned the locals. The entire town's trawlers combined probably weren't as many as the ones they'd brought over — the people on shore were shocked.

Especially the Dong Sheng — one boat piled high with a heap of small wooden boats, nearly knocking the locals' jaws off.

When Ye Yaodong originally booked the boat, he'd imagined stunning everyone when scooping up jellyfish — he never expected to astonish not his own people, but the locals.

When they unloaded the small boats from the big boat into the sea, even more people gathered on shore, watching the show and pointing at the pile of fishing boats that had just docked.

Their people also curiously watched the locals while tidying up the boat's things and preparing to disembark.

Ye Yaodong and the others stood on shore, the surrounding chatter constantly reaching their ears, and some bold souls even struck up conversation with them.

"Where are you folks from? The Zhejiang-Fujian border area?"

"Definitely not. If they were fishermen from the border area, why would they rent houses in our town? They could come and go in a day. I heard they rented for three months…"

"Really? You wouldn't have come all this way specifically to catch the Jellyfish spawning season, would you?"

"Damn it, with so many boats of yours coming to fish, aren't you just stealing our local resources?"

"Yeah, yeah, so many boats, and all big ones. Our entire dock doesn't even have as many big boats as you folks have…"

The locals buzzed with discussion. Ye Yaodong quickly cupped his fists politely and said, "Everyone rest assured, the sea is so vast — we'll go farther out. We won't fish along the coast, we'll only sell our catch here. Selling here can also boost the local economy."

"You've got plenty of small boats too — how are you going to go far out?"

"We'll have the big boats tow the small boats farther out. We won't stay around the coast, and we won't affect the local fishermen fishing along the shore."

"For real? Well, going farther out is fine then…"

Aguang also fished two packs of cigarettes from his pocket, handed them out to the people gathered around chatting with them, and smiled along with his assurances.

"The sea is vast and boundless. We'll go to the nearshore waters to fish, not around this coastline. I took a look and around here most of the boats are small. We just figured it would be more convenient to sell our catch in town, otherwise we wouldn't have settled here."

"I believe your dock will see plenty of passing fishing boats pulling in. The more boats that dock, the better it is for the local economy—everyone has to spend money after all."

Nobody paid any attention to his rambling about the economy or whatnot. Hearing that they wouldn't be fishing around the coastline and wouldn't affect the locals' own fishing, and seeing how polite the two of them were, the voices did quiet down a bit.

"Are you sure you won't be fishing around our area..."

"See that small boat on the big ship over there? When the time comes, we'll use that big ship to tow the small boat along with us to fish in the nearshore waters."

"That's good then..."

The local fishermen weren't that unreasonable. Hearing that they wouldn't be competing with them for catch along the coast, most of them nodded, some even smiling, and they too began chatting away at cross purposes.

Some also started spreading the word to the people around them, saying that they were going to fish in the nearshore waters and not around their area.

Ye Yaodong saw that the opposition had died down, and he and A Guang both breathed a sigh of relief—they'd been afraid of falling at the first hurdle.

With this first matter settled, the rest would depend on what came next.

Meanwhile, the people on the ship also came ashore one after another. Those who had arrived the day before took the initiative to guide them to where they were staying—after all, they were all from the same village, they couldn't really just ignore them.

Still, they only led them to their lodgings to rest for the time being; the rest would depend on their own boat captains to arrange.

Ye Yaodong waited by the shore the whole time, waiting until the small boats from the Dong Sheng had all been lowered onto the sea and tied down securely, before everyone went ashore one after another.

Ye Fu stepped ashore and asked, "Did it go smoothly?"

"Smoothly. Today we also went to visit Officer Yang at the Gongan Bureau and the jellyfish factory. Good thing we came early—the jellyfish factory said this year's jellyfish situation looks good, the numbers have clearly increased a lot these past two days, many factories have started work early, and they might also start two days ahead of schedule."

"That's great then. Starting work earlier means we can earn money sooner. Otherwise, keeping so many people fed costs a fortune every day."

"Exactly."

Ye Fu looked at the crowd of locals gathered around whispering and pointing at them, then pulled Ye Yaodong aside and asked quietly, "We're making quite a scene docking here—will the locals have any objections?"

"We explained it all again just now. A Guang and I politely explained and reassured them, and they didn't really say anything. They even helped spread our message." Ye Yaodong repeated to his father what they had just said.

Ye Fu nodded as well. "Right, we're not competing with them for catch around their area. We're going to fish in the nearshore waters, it won't affect them. The sea is so vast, and around here most of the boats are small wooden ones—looks like over a hundred of them."

"Mm."

"Has Chen Jianian arrived yet?"

"No. No idea when they'll get here. Anyway, we've already arrived first, so we won't worry about them."

"Mm, let's not worry about them. They can fish on their own."

"Let's head back and talk."

Father and son also joined the main group, pushing through the crowd and heading toward the rental house first.

Once they had all left, the surrounding crowd continued to discuss it on the spot, but they only lingered a little while longer before each went about their own business.

No matter how important other people's affairs are, one's own affairs matter more. Still, this matter spread like the wind to every corner of the town.

Their arrival in town didn't affect ordinary people much—only the fishermen and some Gongan Bureau departments would pay attention to them, since it concerned their own immediate interests. Fortunately, they had been polite at the dock and promptly stated that they would be going to the nearshore waters, so it didn't cause much of a stir.

However, the Gongan Bureau did come knocking that very evening to talk with them—probably startled by such a large group of people and fishing boats.

With a large batch of outsiders showing up, it was only natural for the local police to worry about public order and to be concerned.

Ye Yaodong and A Guang laid out all the details for them—they were just fishermen who had come to fish, honest and upright.

After the talk, the Gongan Bureau didn't say much, only telling them to behave themselves and not cause trouble.

After the police left, Ye Yaodong and the others also reassured everyone—otherwise, seeing the police show up had put everyone on edge. The common folk fear the officials; this has been etched into the bones of ordinary people since ancient times.

"Scared me to death. I thought they were going to drive us away and not let us stay in the town. Then this whole trip would have been for nothing."

"How could that be? We haven't caused any trouble. We're just fishermen who came to fish—how could they not allow us to stay in town?"

"Guilty conscience, our bald heads..."

"Good thing we were all wearing hats when we came ashore. Otherwise, I'd really suspect they came to grab us for questioning..."

A Guang burst out laughing. "Hahahaha... that's true... good thing we didn't show our bald heads. Otherwise, with dozens of bald heads, the Gongan Bureau would have been on high alert, and instead of coming empty-handed just now, they'd have come with a bunch of guns pointed at us."

Ye Yaodong was also dying of laughter. "Haha, they'd probably think some dangerous character had gathered all the freshly-released prisoners in one place to carry out a terrorist attack, disrupt public order, and undermine the unity of the people."

Xiao Xiao also joked, "If not you, the terrorist, then who? If they came to arrest us, we'd just push you out."

He said smugly, "I dare say, if they arrested me in the morning, by the afternoon they'd have to invite me back out."

"You're something."

"Naturally."

"So shouldn't we keep our bald heads covered and not easily let people see them? If this gets exposed, the common folk won't be scared to death, but the police certainly will be."

"Wear a hat. Working out at sea—if you don't wear a hat, are you trying to get roasted to death? Once you're home, do whatever you want."

"Then Dongzi, the jellyfish factory is starting early—should we also start early?" Ye Ye Yaopeng asked with concern.

Ye Ye Yaohua also asked, "You arrived yesterday. Did you go check out that sea trench today? Are there any catches over there now?"

"There were a few scattered ones. I just wanted to take a look first to get a sense of it. I didn't have time to fish in the morning—I had to rush back to handle things. I can take people to fish tomorrow. If the numbers aren't many, we can just row around on the sea and look around casually."

But once his Dong Sheng towed the small boats to the sea trench, it stopped moving, to save fuel. While the jellyfish in the trench were few, he could also organize the boatmen to get in the water and gather sea urchins.

The small boats went out to look for jellyfish, the big boat gathered sea urchins—two tasks at once, at least letting them earn money a step ahead of others.

A Guang also thought of it at the same time. Toward the end of last year, the Feng Shou had stopped early because burning fuel wasn't worth it, yet Dongzi was still there stubbornly gathering sea urchins. If it weren't for everyone needing to head back, staying on he could probably have earned even more.

"Those sea urchins of yours..."

"Thinking along the same lines."

"Damn, looks like I'll be watching you make money again."

"Still don't know how the situation is. We'll go over tomorrow and see. Didn't have time to get in the water and take a look this morning."

"When the time comes, let me get in the water too and see what they look like."

"No problem."